Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer is a non-fiction book about Jon Krakauer’s trek up the side of Mount Everest. This is also related to the 1996 Mount Everest disaster. The book begins with a background about Mount Everest and how it was discovered to be the tallest mountain in the world. People want to conquer it because that’s what humans want to do: prove that they are the best. Mount Everest climbing means you are the best because you climb the highest mountain.
With the onset of more modern gear and modern technology, many people were climbing the mountain who weren’t necessarily qualified to like they didn’t have any mountaineering climbing experience. Jon was on a team with many people, including a Japanese woman New Zealander. It is highly gripping because so many crazy things are happening. People were freezing to death, falling off the side of mountains.
Books like Into Thin Air provide a harrowing insight into the physical and emotional toll of extreme mountaineering and the devastating consequences that can occur when things go wrong. They focus on the psychology of extreme mountaineering and why people are driven to push themselves to the brink of their physical and mental abilities. So, don’t miss them!
10 Books Like Into Thin Air (Adventure & Survival)
“Into Thin Air” is not easy to read due to its intense and emotionally charged subject matter. Krakauer’s writing is gripping and intense, and he does not shy away from describing the physical and emotional toll of the climb, as well as the tragic events that unfolded on the mountain.
Additionally, Krakauer’s writing style can sometimes be dense, with technical language and jargon related to mountaineering. This can make the book challenging to read for those who are not familiar with the terminology. However, Krakauer also does an excellent job explaining these concepts and making them easy for the reader.
I was shocked and statue when I read the book Into Thin Air. I learned many things about survival skills and adventure. This book was so thrilling and exciting to me. As an adventure lover, I read many books. Now, I will discuss the top 10 books similar to Into Thin Air. Let’s start!
1. Touching the Void
Touching the Void tells the true story of two climbers in the Peruvian Andes. They’ve got the top of grand Grande, which is a peak that was 6344 meters high. They’ve begun their descent back down when Joe (author) slips and has a nasty accident. He’s got nasty breaks to both his legs.
So Joe’s badly injured, and his climbing partner is Simon Yates, and they’ve got to get down and off this mountain to save themselves. They devise a plan whereby Simon lowers Joe down a length of rope. Joe then takes his weight off the rope, climbs onto the rocks onto the ground, and then Simon climbs down. So they’ve been through this a few times. Then what happens?
Simon thinks Joe is probably dangling in mid-air. He’s not reached the ground yet, so he’s not taken his weight off, and they wait there for a while. So again, Simon is being dragged off to this ledge. He can’t do anything to help Simon and is sorry to help Joe. The only thing he can do ultimately saves himself, and to do that, he has to cut the rope. Joe is going to go tumbling to his death.
So eventually, this is the whodunit. Could you do it? But Simon cuts the rope. Joe falls and is on his descent. Simon has a bit of a look around for Joe. Like Into Thin Air, this book tells the extraordinary story of Joe’s survival, which is Joe falling into this crevasse. He can’t get up out of this crevasse because he’s so badly injured. So he, after a while, makes the decision. He can only head down and doesn’t know if he’ll be able to get out, but he has no choice.
Author: Joe Simpson
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Adventure Travel, Outdoors & Nature, Climbing
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
2. The Perfect Storm
Perfect Storm is a non-fiction book. If you have seen the movie, I highly recommend it. You can get a lot out of the book, and that’s not to put down the movie at all. You join on an entirely different level through the book if you haven’t seen the movie.
There are three main elements for the two main things: dealing with the weather and the power of a storm. A specific storm hit the Atlantic Ocean Atlantic coastline in 1991. It also focuses on the fishing industry and the men who work in it, their struggles, how dangerous that line of work is, and how that type of life impacts them.
The author does an excellent job of diving into the background of the storyline’s characters. This book primarily focuses on one ship, Andrea Gail. It says it’s on the back of the Andrea Gail sinks during the storm, and all crewmen die. So a large part of this book covers the crew members of this boat as they go towards their deaths, even though they don’t know it.
There’s a great story element to it. But if you don’t want nonfiction, you might not enjoy some parts of the book. The author gets very technical when he explains stuff like the shipping industry, how fishing works, and aspects of weather. All the scientific elements of the storm get very technical.
Biotic the elements they deal with a crew. Men are so compelling that you might be able to work your way through the more scientific parts that you normally wouldn’t enjoy. This book covers the people involved in the storm besides the anger angle. The storm impacts several other boats with the cover, the deal with the Coast Guard, the National Guard, and the civilians living on the coast. So it’s more than this book that has many similarities to Into Thin Air.
It is a fantastic journey. It’s for people involved, and it is very much a job where they put their lives on the line every time they vote. So it gives you whole respect for those people and a lot of respect for whether the awesome power of Mother Nature of the Storm is impressive when the author describes it.
This perfect storm was created in a storm. It was a perfect storm. They described it as one of those storms that would only come once every 100 years. The conditions it created were very freakish. So this book is inspired a lot of me in several regards, be it from the fishermen to the power of Mother Nature is a compelling book.
Author: Sebastian Junger
Average Rating: 4.6/5
Category: Natural Disasters, Survival Skills
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
3. Dead Mountain
Dead Mountain is the one that stuck out to me the most. It is nonfiction, as it is a true story. The story is about nine hikers going through the Russian mountains in 1959. All found dead. But they were all found in mysterious circumstances where ten had been ripped open. None of them had shoes on or proper winter clothing.
Over 50 years later, nobody has been able to solve this mystery. So the author, Donnie Eichar, a documentary filmmaker, decided to investigate. At one point, he goes to Russia to explore and retrace the steps of the climbers up through the past, where they were found dead. What is so unique, in my opinion, about this book is how well Donnie Eichar humanizes the story. What happened to these nine hikers, and what do their family and friends deal with?
One of the few positives of the Soviet Union was that they were a very egalitarian society, and women were seen as equals on this hiking trip. So the story goes back between the chapters following the author and his investigation and what he was uncovering.
Then, the investigators eventually found their bodies, back to what we already know happened to the climbers themselves when they first left for the trip. This is a very famous case in Russia that many people know about, but not so famous in other parts of the world.
So people have been speculating for these past 50 years about what could have happened. The theories go anywhere from basic avalanches and things that occur to hikers to UFOs are going to do it because it is that mysterious possible. The circumstances that they were found under and the backdrop of the Soviet Union at the time is something that you cannot ignore.
Like Into Thin Air, the book is filled with pictures and maps. The picture on the cover is considered the last picture they took before they died. Of course, we will never know what happened to them, but the author takes all the main theories, examines them, and puts forth what he thinks is the most compelling and reasonable. It was so interesting getting to know the climbers and so sad to know what their families would have gone through.
Author: Donnie Eichar
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Expeditions & Discoveries
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle
4. Deep Survival
Deep Survival is about who lives, who dies, and why. It’s a fascinating book about why some people live through disasters, are stuck on a mountain or trapped in a snowstorm, and why others don’t. One of the author’s tips is one way to become a survivor is to stay calm, except for what you see. Don’t try and make it make sense. What you think you’re seeing is real, and you have to accept that you have a sense of humor and stay calm.
Another thing he says to do is read accident reports. This might seem morbid, but reading accident reports and whatever you like to do. If you want to mountaineer, read mountaineering accident reports. Because by learning what other people do wrong, maybe you won’t make the same mistake.
The hikers play a fun game to try to get to the top. In one year, they had an avalanche danger, but they ignored it because they were seasoned riders that knew what they were doing right. What ended up happening is one of them triggered Avalanche, and it killed one of the guys at the bottom. So first of all, you have to be aware when situations change. You have to be aware of the situation you have to be in.
The other guys were in the bottom two, but they took off. That’s like natural selection. It’s harsh and brutal, but that’s what happens if you are in front of a car and don’t move. If you’re mountain biking, you shouldn’t fear the rocks, the potential falling, and all those things. So it was an exciting read like Into Thin Air.
Author: Laurence Gonzales
Average Rating: 4.5/5
Category: Mountaineering, Survival, Adventure Travel
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | Audio CD
5. Alone on the Wall
Alone on the Wall is about how incredible a climber, Alex Honnold, is, not with free soloing, basically when you climb a mountain or structure without any harnesses or ropes. He has no equipment besides chalk and some water, but about all the fantastic climbing feats he’s done. This book is the perfect complement to that documentary. It starts with the beginning of Alex’s life.
Some difficulties that he had in childhood and everything how he discovered climbing. Then how the more he did it, the more he became obsessed. He was somebody who constantly would do more and more incredibly impressive climbs. David Roberts does a fantastic job covering Alex’s life and everything. But throughout the book, it goes back and forth between David’s and Alex’s words.
It’s cool to see the different perspectives David explains from his perspective. Being a climber, it’s like looking at Alex’s history and the feats he’s done. Especially as a climber, he knows how incredibly impressive some of Alex’s feats have done. So it’s cool to see them returning from that to Alex’s perspective in the first person. The book goes through many of his life’s fantastic journeys, similar to Into Thin Air. His accomplishments and his feats show a bunch of great pitchers.
Author: Alex Honnold, David Roberts
Average Rating: 4.7/5
Category: Climbing, Biographies & Memoirs (Editor’s Pick)
Available: Audiobook | Paperback | Hardcover | Kindle | MP3 CD
6. Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
“Endurance” is the true story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s journey to Antarctica in 1914. When their ship (Endurance) is crushed by ice, Shackleton and his men are forced to survive for over a year in one of the harshest environments on Earth.
This is a remarkable story of human endurance, leadership, and resilience in the face of incredible adversity. After reading Into Thin Air, you must read it to keep your same excitement alive.
7. The Climb: Tragic Ambitions on Everest by Anatoli Boukreev and G. Weston DeWalt
The Climb covers the 1996 Mount Everest disaster from the perspective of Anatoli Boukreev. He is one of the expedition guides who was present during the tragedy.
Boukreev provides a gripping and controversial story of the events that led to the deaths of eight climbers on the mountain. Like Into Thin Air, this book is about survival and the power of the inner self.
8. Alive by Piers Paul Read
“Alive” is the true story of the 1972 Andes plane crash in which an Uruguayan rugby team was stranded in the mountains for 72 days. The book details their harrowing struggle for survival, including resorting to cannibalism to stay alive. It’s a haunting and unforgettable story of human endurance and the will to survive.
9. No Shortcuts to the Top by Ed Viesturs
Ed Viesturs is one of the world’s most accomplished high-altitude mountaineers and has climbed all 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks without supplemental oxygen.
This is his memoir, detailing his adventures in some of the most extreme environments on Earth. Viesturs’ story of his climb up Annapurna is particularly gripping and heart-stopping. Both Into Thin Air and No Shortcuts to the Top deal with mountaineering and survival.
10. The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer
The White Spider is a classic mountaineering book that explores the history of climbing the Eiger in the Swiss Alps. Harrer provided an engaging story of the first successful ascent of the notorious North Face of the Eiger in 1938. The book also shows the psychology of extreme mountaineering and the risks and rewards that come with it.
These books are about the exploration of the human drive to pursue seemingly impossible goals. They are gripping and emotionally charged read that will leave a lasting impression.
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